Susan Barias

Fun Fact:
Susan met her husband in college during a production of Jean-Paul Sartre’s No Exit. She served as the stage manager, while her future husband joined the cast at the last minute as a replacement for an actor. In addition to her theater involvement, Susan performed with the Pacific Island Dancers in Grand Rapids, Michigan, showcasing traditional Hawaiian and Filipino folk dances.

Why did you go into Pilates instruction?
I came to Pilates the way most movement practitioners eventually do, through the core. Not just the physical center of the body, but what I’ve come to understand as the origin of all movement. After completing my Reformer 1 and 2 certifications with NETA in 2026, something shifted in how I see every class I teach.

Pilates is foundational. Not in the sense that it is basic or beginner, quite the opposite. It is foundational like a root system is invisible, essential, and the reason everything above ground stands tall. Whether I’m cueing a Zumba transition, loading a bar for BODYPUMP, or guiding someone through a yoga flow, the principles I absorbed through Reformer training are present in all of it — the breath, the neutral spine, the intentional engagement of deep stabilizing muscles that most people don’t even know they have.

What I love most about bringing Pilates into my teaching is that it builds on the gaps from other modalities. Cardio builds endurance. Strength training builds power. Yoga builds flexibility, presence, and mind-body connection. Pilates builds the architecture, the muscular intelligence that makes all of those things sustainable. A strong core is not just about aesthetics. It is about protection, longevity, and freedom of movement as we age.

Since my Reformer training, I’ve been weaving Pilates principles into my other classes in subtle and deliberate ways — reminding students to find their powerhouse during a Zumba warmup, cueing transverse abdominis engagement before a heavy lift, and integrating breathwork and spinal articulation into yoga transitions. My students feel the difference, and so do I.

I teach Pilates because I believe every person deserves to feel at home in their body. And the core, literally and figuratively, is where that homecoming begins.